Brighton is set to become the first city to introduce a ban on ‘anti-gay’ lyrics next week, reports the BBC.
The policy, which looks likely to be approved at a Council meeting next Thursday (13 Dec), would make any music – live or recorded – inciting racial, religious or sexual hatred illegal in the city.
Venues supporting what’s described by local Councillor Dee Simpson as “murder music” could have live licenses removed under the new policy.
"It will be used in really extreme cases to stop the playing of what's loosely termed murder music," said Simpson."We have a large gay and lesbian community in Brighton and Hove and we want to protect people from facing such hatred.
"I'm a firm believer in freedom of speech but I'm against the incitement of hatred against minorities."
There was controversy in Brighton last year when dancehall star Buju Banton (pictured) scheduled a show for the Concorde 2, a venue in the city’s gay district.
Accused of writing homophobic lyrics, the gig was cancelled by event managers at the last minute after pressure from the council, police and the gay community, but Simpson believes there is a need for an "explicit policy in place” to stop artists like Banton from appearing in the city.
Though Banton has since signed up to a commitment to ban hatred and prejudice from his music, but gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomes the move, arguing that "free speech does not include the right to advocate the killing of other human beings".
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Brighton's banning Murder Music?
That's Nick Cave fucked then!
the Concorde 2, a venue in the city’s gay district
the gay district being under the promenade to the left of the pier, in front of the beach?
Next gig I do at the barfly I'm gonna play a song called "kill all gay, black women", so it gets shut down.
What's wrong with the Barfly?
-one of the toilet cubicles doesnt lock
-the lights make you really hot on stage
-since barfly took over its not £1.50 for a snakebite and 70p for a vodka shot any more
mainly the last one to be honest
Ahh the good old days of
cheap snakebite, cold lights and places to snort things...times change though.
i was thinking more of the good old days
of cheap snakebite, no bands, and being able to do a poo without someone busting in and puking on your lap.
I was only joking anyway, I like the Gloucester as a venue, the new PA sounds really good.
fair enough..
the P.A is amazing now though, you're right. That's the only reason I wanted to defend it.
Wost thing about the Barfly
is that the toilet is like, next to the stage. Bad news for noses.
Hang on a second...
...aren't there already laws in place to outlaw incitement to violence? Why does Brighton think it can dictate to the rest of the nation what is and isn't acceptable?
If you feel a show is going to violate the current legislation, then it can be stopped. There is no need for further, specific legislation like this, and it smacks of box-ticking on Brighton council's part.
they're not trying to dictate to the nation
they're trying to dictate to brighton. that's kind of the point.
its all well and good banning those who incite racist/homophobic behaviour
but once the band is in place it can become so easy to extent that out to those who criticise the government ect
band? ban
ugh i need to start proof reading
what a bunch of gays
I guess I'll have to call off my
Skrewdriver/Beenie Man double header then.
I hear they're big fans...
...of double headers in Brighton. Fnar fnar!
Ramblings of a broken mind
Free speech is free speech, end of discussion. Do you know what i mean though? If people are singing about how they don't like you then walk away and dont listen. It's simple, some people are arseholes and some are not. However, if we dont allow those who are arsholes to show us their arseholeness then how do we differentiate. That's a simple way of putting it ofcourse - still, does anyone get what i mean?
no
Don't like my condending tone aye, well fuck you!
Are you twelve?
Condecending* I am joking of course.
I only come on this site to piss people off, it's people like you that keep me coming back. Nice one man! No, sometimes I get bored in work and they aint blocked this site yet, I mean no harm. X I have discovered a lot of decent bands through this place and for that I am grateful. I'm going to stop being such an arsehole actually.
Yeah...
Freedom of speech is becoming too much of a grey area these days. Freedom of speech means everything, there shouldn't be any restrictions on that.
^^ exactly calump
either there is freedom of speech or there isn't. there can be no grey area.
the difference here is
it's not someone who sings about "not liking someone", Mr Banton had a hit song that incited to actually *kill* gays ("Batty Boy" is Jamaican slang for a gay man as far as i know) and basically condoned violence and queerbashing. There was a very good programme on channel 4 the other day called "Batty Boy" made by a black gay comedian who travelled to jamaica and also around the black communities in Britain looking at some of the homophobic messages in a lot of dancehall and the way they translated into real time homophobia and violence, it was disturbing to say the least. . .
isn't 'inciting' open to interpretation though?
If i write a song entitled 'I bloody hate gays, me, I'd well like to lynch them', I'm not encouraging anyone else do it, so can I still play in brighton?
you could argue
that if you would write such a song and perform it to an audience, yes, you could encourage some people, you're some sort of role model up there, right? and it would be enough even if you would just sing something like that, cos it would be offensive. so i hope you didn't really mean it :-)
but that's what I'm saying
You can't actively ban people from saying offensive things, can you? And if you try, it drives them underground, it doesn't stop anything.
It's an impossible law to enforce.
(and for the record, no, I haven't actually written the song)
ahhh...good! it didn't sound like something i'd want to hear ;-)
yeah, i'm not sure about how effective a ban like this can be either, and whether it's the right response. but you can definitely ban certain types of *events* ...i mean that's what happened with the Buju Banton gig at the Concorde. You'll find it happens a lot already, a lot of venues, Student unions for instance, have fairly clear policies on offensive language i.e. homophobia, mysogyny, racism, etc. and will not allow such performers onto their stage.
wait, i don't understand
are they banning people from LISTENING to racist/sexist/homophobic etc lyrics? or from writing them? or from performing them live?
either way, it's going to be pretty impossible to implement, i'd think. but then since when have laws had to be practical?
also, what about songs that talk about killing people who AREN'T minorities? are they banned too? THIS WHOLE THING IS SO STUPID OMG.
True dat.
Songs involving violence towards women are pretty commonplace, especially in metal. Are they banned too? Or is it ok since women make up 51% of the population?
stupid
stupid stupid.
not you,
them.
this is all..
fantastically retarded.
i dunno...
can you give some commonplace examples of metal songs openly condoning violence against women / murder of women? (i'm not that familiar with a lot of metal...a lot of the lyrics seem to be buried in a wall of noise... but maybe that's just my attitude towards it...)
I'd be interested to know
Which side the Daily Mail/Express will take!
What metal songs?!
If your moral grounding comes from songs then you are one disturbed individual! Perhaps we should ban disturbed individuals. Whats the difference between singing about how you hate a certain type of people and telling people that you do? We'll have to ban certain types of conversations aswell. This debate should really have been a non starter.
Calm down, mate.
That's the whole point - I was saying the Middle England tabloids would lap this story up. They're very good at pulling issues apart when there's nothing to investigate or have an opinion on. See also: Madeleine McCann.
It was a thinly-veiled satire at the Daily Mail/Express's supposed dislike of gay/black people ;-), but never mind.
on Madeleine McCann..
.. well there is plenty of stuff to investigate, but they've cheapened this story of an innocent little girl so much by giving it blanket coverage that they've turned it into "non-news". Or something like that. Anyway, a debate for another day.
I wasn't responding to you.
Calm down!!!!!!!!!
what a bunch of bollocks
was talking to some gay friends of mine in brighton last night about this and they think its utter rubbish.
"free speech does not include the right to advocate the killing of other human beings"
^ thats exactly what free speech is, becuase it's free speech, innit?
you might be wrong, but you can still say it.
does this
mean it's now antidistablishment and cool to be homophobic and "stick it to the man"?
fuck poofs!